


Hold Me Tight (or Don't)

by UisceOneLove



Series: Dark Stony Bingo 2021 [11]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Dark Tony Stark, Emotional Manipulation, Happy Endings are Relative, M/M, Modern Steve Rogers, Morally Dubious Tony Stark, Sociopath Tony Stark, Steve Rogers Emotionally Burying Himself, Superfamily (Marvel), mentioned character deaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-21 23:07:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30029265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UisceOneLove/pseuds/UisceOneLove
Summary: Steve wished that he had understood what it meant to covet something so desperately that nothing was out of bounds to get it.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Dark Stony Bingo 2021 [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2193099
Comments: 7
Kudos: 40
Collections: SteveTony Acheronian Bingo 2021





	Hold Me Tight (or Don't)

**Author's Note:**

> Dark Stony Bingo, Trope Inversion Card, Square: "Adoption"

He wished that he had understood what it meant to covet something so desperately that nothing was out of bounds to get it. 

He'd been so blind with the fulfillment of having a happy marriage, good friends, and a job that he got to love every time he woke up in the morning that Steve hadn't stopped to think that there could be something wrong. 

Tony used to be afraid of them potentially having children. Steve assured him every time the subject happened to come up that having a man like Howard for a father didn't inherently mean Tony would be the same. He promised that he'd be able to take care of someone. 

Steve had also promised that they didn't have to adopt. They were happy just the two of them. He could be content with that. 

And then Stark Industries was holding a special event, and the Parkers brought their son Peter along. 

"He's going to be smarter than me someday," Richard declared proudly to them, ruffling his son's hair. "He already solved a few equations I was working on."

Tony's brows rose, impressed. "Has he now?"

"You should see what he knows about tensile strength," Richard nodded, " _ tensile strength _ and he's only seven!"

Steve thought it was something hopeful starting in the way Tony's eyes lit up with interest. The closer that they got to the Parkers, the more that Tony spoiled him and taught him, like an uncle.

It should have been innocent. 

Steve should have seen it. Or perhaps he did, and hadn't wanted to see it.

No one wants to believe the man they love is capable of something heinous. 

* * *

Steve hurried home as fast as he could. 

All Tony had told him on the phone was that there'd been an emergency and he couldn't explain through a phonecall. Bucky understood and said he could take care of the gallery without Steve and sent him on his way. 

It was a haphazard parking job when he pulled up to their place. Steve's heart stopped at the sight of a police car in their driveway, feeling cold all over as he got out and ran up the yard to get inside. 

"Tony?" he called out as soon as he breached the front door, looking around wildly for his husband. 

"Steve, in the kitchen."

He wasn't relieved until his eyes landed on Tony, who was standing up from their table. He didn't look hurt but Steve didn't have the story yet. All Steve cared about was pulling Tony into his arms and checking for himself. 

"Steve, it's not me, I'm fine," Tony assured him but held him as his panic started to lower to a more controllable level. 

The blond moved back with a concerned furrow of his brow. "If it's not you, then what's the emergency?" He took in the other people in the kitchen; two officers who looked varying degrees of sympathetic with one of them at the table, and a kid, no older than seven, who was in the seat next to Tony's vacated one. 

"Peter Parker?" Steve looked at Tony. "Where are Richard and Mary?" Where were Ben and May, for that matter? Why was Peter here and not with them? 

Peter, the poor kid, looked absolutely wrecked; his cheeks and eyes were puffed up and red, his nose sounded like it'd be clogged for days, and his small frame wracked with pent-up sobs. Tony's own aguish mirrored the boy's and it said all Steve needed to know. 

"They're dead, Steve," Tony said in a quiet voice, not wanting Peter to hear the words again. "May and Ben, too."

Seeing the officers and Peter didn't make the news register any faster for Steve. There was still a voice saying that it couldn't be true; Tony and Steve had gone over to dinner with the Parkers just a few nights ago. They'd all been happy and healthy, playing some board games and laughing over Peter's excitement from his lesson on arachnids. 

It couldn't have happened so quickly. 

"How?" Steve asked, feeling like the question was punched out of him. 

The officer leaning against their counter spoke up at that. "Car accident," she said, looking in Peter's direction with pity. "Went off the bridge. We think there was a malfunction with the brakes." 

It sounded so--so wrong. 

"He doesn't have anywhere else to go, Steve," Tony said, gripping his hand, surprisingly breaching his pain tolerance, "Peter called me on one of their cell phones. We can't let them just taken him to some foster home." 

"We can let him stay here with you as his temporary guardians," the other officer told him, "keep him with people he knows until social services make a final decision." 

Tony didn't need to ask. "Of course," Steve nodded, moving around to take the seat next to Peter. Peter was normally such a vibrant kid. Practically hung off the walls. He was so quiet now, looked so small and fragile. 

Steve risked putting a hand to the boy's shoulder, trying to give him some kind of comfort. "Hey, Peter," he said softly, "would you be okay with staying with us for a little while? How's that sound?" 

The kid sniffled and nodded, throwing himself into Steve. The man quickly wrapped his arms around the boy as Peter sobbed into his chest.

"We've got you," Steve promised, looking to Tony. The brunet's glistened, teeth digging into his knuckle before he started escorting the officers out. 

"I want my mom and dad," Peter whispered brokenly. 

Steve wanted his own ma right then, too. "I know, Peter. I know." 

* * *

He was the first to admit he wasn't smart like Tony and Peter. Steve knew art, and he knew history. He was amazing at strategy, which is how he was able to develop a workable plan for the gallery that's helped them be so successful in the last three years. 

That didn't make Steve an idiot either. 

As Steve watched Tony put Peter to bed through the cracked guest room door, something he saw in the way his husband was looking at the boy sent a chill through him. 

* * *

"He's perfect, Steve," Tony said as they lied in bed together. "We'll take good care of him, won't we?"

"If they'll let us adopt him," Steve replied. 

"They will," Tony said, and the promise only made Steve nervous instead of hopeful, "I'll take care of it, Steve. Peter belongs here with us." 

* * *

Steve wanted to be happy looking down at the paperwork that declared Peter Parker as now being Peter Stark-Rogers. 

Peter, while still grieving for the family he'd lost, had gained back some of his shine at the news. He hugged them tightly as soon as Tony came home and told him. Now, Tony was on the ground with Peter in the living room, working on some kind of science kit.

Steve wanted to sit on the couch and watch them with the fondness he'd held a month ago. But that look, from that night, still told him something wasn't right. 

The gut feeling, the terrible feeling, led him away from his family and down the hall to Tony's office. He didn't often go into it; only if there was paperwork to add to the safe or if his husband was holed up on another project he needed to put down to paper before switching over to the workshop. Steve pushed the door slowly enough to not cause a noise Tony could hear and slipped inside, going straight to the desk and beginning his search. 

He didn't know what exactly he was looking for; Steve's never had a suspicion of Tony doing something wrong and he didn't spend his time watching many crime shows. The blond shuffled through paperwork, blueprints, anything he could get his hands on. 

The police had said it was the brakes. Tony worked on cars all of the time, had his own collection of them, would he  _ need _ to leave a trail behind for that to be pulled off? 

Steve sat heavily in Tony's chair when he couldn't come up with anything. He wasn't imagining things and his gut was never wrong. 

The door opened while Steve had his face in his hands. The heaviness of the steps told him who they were, though he wouldn't have needed to even try to guess. "Peter's wondering where you went off to," Tony told him, shutting the door behind him. "Any reason you needed to get away to my office?"

Of all the words that Steve could have chosen, the words decided to choose for him. "Did you kill the Parkers?"

The air around them changed in an instant, tense and claustrophobic. Tony stayed where he was and Steve did the very same. He couldn't even look at Tony because he didn't want to see if the man was lying. 

"And if I did?" 

Steve choked, head snapping up because he hadn't planned on Tony responding  _ that way _ . Tony was observing him, no emotion, and it made Steve afraid. Afraid of his husband, who he might now know so well after all. 

" _ Why _ ?" Steve couldn't fathom any valid, acceptable reason. "They were good people. They were our friends." 

Tony still didn't look as if that meant anything. "They would not have been able to feed his full potential, Steve."

"Potential? You killed people for a child's potential?" 

"Peter could be the next revolutionary. I see it. You see it. Even Richard had." Tony took even steps to the desk but he stayed on the other side of it. "We love him, don't we? Can't you feel that he's supposed to be  _ ours _ , Steve?"

"Do you...do you expect me to say you were right to do this?" Steve responded, feeling as if he's in one of Natasha's horror books, or the twist in her crime novels, and this won't end well. It never does.

Tony leaned forward with a nod. "I saved him, Steve," he insisted, "we're the family he needs."

"You had no right to decide that," Steve shook his head, unable to move. He had nowhere to go; Tony could intercept him. He was fast and spry, and could easily find a way to overpower Steve despite the size difference. 

He pressed into the seat as if he could back away when Tony rounded the desk. The brunet went down on his knees and took Steve's hands, not letting him pull away. "You taught me about sacrifices, Steve," Tony soothed, "and this was one that had to be made. He'll be happy with us. We can be a family, and I'll prove that your faith in me is well--placed. I want to be a good father. I want  _ you _ to be able to be a father." 

"We could have done it another way," Steve replied, voice tight, "the  _ right _ way." 

"There's no right way," Tony blew off, "there's only the best way. The way that works."

Steve was ready to bite back that,  _ no _ , there were actual laws that laid out what the right way was, but Tony was cupping his face and leaning in close. 

"We love each other," Tony whispered, kissing Steve, "we love Peter," another kiss, "and if you tell people about this, they will either refuse to believe you or it will ruin what we can give him." Kissing Tony back was second-nature, even now. 

But the sinking feeling was still there. 

"Don't ruin the future we can have with Peter, Steve," Tony pleaded against his lips.

Why did Steve now feel like he was the bad one?

He didn't want to lose anyone. He didn't want to swipe another family out from under Peter's feet. He didn't want to see Tony being led away in handcuffs or any for any of their friends to think he was crazy. 

Can Steve pretend? Is he made for that? 

"Can we do that, Steve?" Tony asked, kissing him again. "Can we have a happy family?" 

Steve's fight fell with the few tears that spilled over.

"I want us to be happy," Steve promised. 

"I know you do, Steve," Tony said, brushing the tracks from Steve's face. "And we will be. The three of us."

Steve let Tony take him back out to Peter and took the seat on the couch that he wanted before. He sat there and watched them make something he knew nothing about. And he buried, one by one, everything that said it was wrong. 

He buried it until the grave was deep enough that nothing could claw out. 

* * *

He did the same three years later when Tony met Harley Keener at a Stark Expo.

Then again when it was Pepper and Happy's daughter, Morgan. 

Steve turned a blind eye to it all, smiled and took them in with every intention of comforting them through their grief, and loved them like his own while Tony built a bigger family for them. 

Steve was happy.

They were happy.

When something is said long enough, it eventually comes true. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos feed my dark soul, so please leave some!


End file.
